By Charlie Mark
The Port Washington Vikings have embarked on yet another season at Schreiber High School. The team is led by Coach Sean Dooley, plus seniors Ben Spier, Marc Daly, John Bellini and Joe Melkonian. The Vikings are returning to play after an impressive season last year, losing to the Uniondale Knights in the playoffs. This season, the team’s desires to win cannot be overstated. Their mindset focus around unforgiving aggressiveness and hard work.
“Just keep playing hard with aggressive defense,” said junior player Jacob Katz. “Keep up the chemistry and keep working hard in practice.”
This is an approach that nurtures winning—something that has not been a stranger to the Vikings so far this season. The team has opened the season with a notable 5-3 record. Hard fought victories have come against West Hempstead, Massapequa, Roslyn, Great Neck South and Archbishop Molloy. Unfortunate losses have been against Manhasset, Baldwin and Malverne, the latter being in the championship game of the Fritz Mueller-Arnie Sims Invitational Basketball Tournament.
While every teammate has played an integral role in the team’s early success, it’s been specific contributions that have propelled the Vikings to victory. Timely offensive outbursts by Harris Sonnenklar, Marc Daly and Ben Spier have contributed to victories as well as the powerful display of defense by John Bellini. Though the team’s talent has been a key factor in their early triumphs, it has been their chemistry on the court that has given them the edge over their competitors. The best teams are the ones with the best chemistry. Teams that sacrifice personal glory for the common goal are the ones that eventually prevail. The Vikings have proven to fall under this category of teams with their early play.
“We are all friends on the team and talk on and off the court and because of that we are more fluent on the court,” said Katz. “We know each other’s games since we have played with each other a lot which contributes to our play as a team.”
The future is bright for the Vikings. They have chemistry and skill—two main ingredients for basketball success.
Charlie Mark is a sophomore at Schreiber. He hosts a weekly radio show at WDOT Port Washington Radio and is a monthly contributor to the Schreiber Times.
